Here it would be entertaining to apply theſe obſervations to the force of fleets and armies, &c. applied by Great Britain in the late conteſt with America. The balance of land, eſpecially in New England, where the force was firſt applied, was neither in the king nor a nobility, but immenſely in favour of the people. The intention of the Britiſh politicians was to alter this balance, "frame the foundation to the government, by bringing the lands more and more into the hands of the governors, judges, counſellors, &c. &c, who were all to be creatures of a Britiſh miniſtry. We have ſeen the effects."—The balance deſtroyed that which oppoſed it.
Harrington proceeds.—But there are certain other confuſions, which being rooted in the balance, are of longer continuance, and of worſe conſequence; as, firſt, where a nobility holds half the property, or about that proportion, and the people the other half; in which caſe, without altering the balance, there is no remedy, but the one muſt eat out the other: as the people did the nobility in Athens, and the nobility the people in Rome. Secondly, where a prince holds about half the dominion, and the people the other half, which was the caſe of the Roman emperors, (planted partly upon their military colonies, and partly upon the ſenate and the people) the government becomes a very ſhambles, both of the princes and the people. It being unlawful in Turky that any ſhould poſſeſs land but the grand ſeignior, the balance is fixed by the law, and that empire firm. Nor, though the kings often fell, was the throne of England known to ſhake, until the ſtatute of alienations broke the pillars, by giving way to the nobility to ſell their eſtates. While Lacedemon held to the diviſion of land made by
